Proceedings of the ASME 2015 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition

IMECE2015
November 13-19, 2015, Houston, Texas

IMECE2015-50633

DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF A MICROSCALE CRICKET FILIFORM HAIR SOCKET

1 2
A. Hossain and A. Mian *
1
Department of Engineering and Design
Eastern Washington University, Cheney, Washington - 99004
2
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio - 45435
*Contacting author, Email: ahsan.mian@wright.edu; Ph: 937-775-5143

ABSTRACT
Filiform hairs of crickets are of great interest to engineers
because of their highly sensitive response to low velocity air
currents. In this study, the cercal sensory system of a common
house cricket has been analyzed. The sensory system consists
of two antennae like appendages called cerci that are situated at
the rear of the cricket’s abdomen. Each cercus is covered with
500-750 flow sensitive hairs that are embedded in a complex
viscoelastic socket that acts as a spring -dashpot system and
guides the movement of the hair. When the hair deflects due to
the drag force induced on its length by a moving air-current, the
spiking activity of the neuron and the combined spiking activity
of all hairs are extracted by the cercal sensory system. The hair
has been experimentally studied by few researchers though its
characteristics are not fully understood. The socket structure
has not been analyzed experimentally or theoretically from a
mechanical standpoint. Therefore, this study aims to understand
the dynamic response of socket and its interaction with the
filiform hair. First, a 3D Finite Element Analysis (FEA) model,
representing hair and hair-socket, has been developed. Then the
dynamic analysis is conducted utilizing the appropriate load
and boundary conditions based on the physical conditions that
an insect experiences. These numerical analyses aid to
understand the dynamic response of the hair and hair-socket
system. The operating principles of the hair and hair-socket
could be used for the design of highly responsive MEMS
devices such as fluid flow sensors or micro-manipulators.
INTRODUCTION
Human engineers are inspired to offer better design from
nature since the earliest of times. The bats are using their
wings, populated with many air flow sensors, for enhanced
stability and maneuverability during flight. Similarly, many
insects and arachnids have a high density of flow sensitive
hairs. Insects such as crickets have very sensitive thin hairs
called filiform that can respond to minute external disturbances
by deflecting from their resting positions. In crickets, the hair
length is the determinant of the kind of stimulus it will best
respond to. For example, shorter hairs (less than 500 m in
length) are acceleration sensitive, and hairs longer than 500 m
are velocity sensitive [1].
The sensory system examined for this study is the cercal
system of the common house cricket, Acheta domesticus. The
cercus system functions as an extension of the insect’s auditory
system and facilitates the detection, localization and
identification of air current signals generated by predators and
mates [2]. Two long antenna-like appendages, called cerci, are
the receptor structures the cercal sensory system. Each cercus is
approximately 1 cm long in an adult cricket and is covered with
500 to 750 sensory hairs. These hairs range from 50 micron to 2
mm in length [2].
The bottom of each hair has a channel that connects with
dendrite of a spike generating sensory neuron, as shown in
Figure 1. The hairs deform when stressed, and caused a change
in the spiking activity of their associated neurons. The
information from the combined spiking activity of the hair
array, consisting of 1000 to 1500 hairs, is extracted by the
cercal sensory system. Each filiform hair is constrained at its
base to move back and forth in the horizontal plane by a hinge-
like support. Movement in one direction along a hair’s
movement axis excites the associated receptor neuron while
movement in the other direction inhibits the neuron.
Because the filiform hairs are extremely sensitive, even to
air currents less than 1 mm/s, biomechanical studies to
characterize the structural and sensing mechanism of the hair
and socket assembly are necessary qualitatively and
quantitatively. If the characterization is successful, then similar
principles might be adopted to design and fabricate ultra-
sensitive flow meters, or highly responsive micro-manipulation
devices. Although cricket hair inspired flow sensing
mechanisms have been studied and flow-sensors fabricated at
the University of Twente [3-4], the operating principle of the
two studies are very different. The said sensors focus on
fabrication of MEMS devices and study hair deflection. Joshi et
al. [5] analyzed a cricket filiform hair socket under low velocity
air currents using ANSYS Workbench where load was applied
as a distributed line load on the entire long hair. Linear
variation of load was assumed in the length direction. Socket

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 was modeled using solid elements although in reality it is made
of viscoelastic materials with very thin wall thickness that acts
more like a diaphragm. Hossain and Mian [6] carried out the
work of Joshi et al. [5] and performed static analysis of a
microscale cricket filiform hair-socket assembly. The analysis
was performed in ANSYS APDL where a short hair was sitting
in a viscoelastic socket. The study focused mainly the
deformation mechanism of the sockets and its interaction with
hair.
Figure 1: Schematic of Hair and Socket structure and the
receptor neuron arrangement.
This current study focuses on the dynamic response of the
hair-socket assembly. In particular, it predicts their first few
natural frequencies and mode shapes. These are important to
avoid resonance. The transient response of the hair-socket
assembly is also presented in this paper. The hair was modeled
with constant inner diameter of 18 micron and length of 1350
micron. Therefore, the length to inner diameter ratio is 75.
However, the outer diameter of the hair was not constant but
varied linearly, with maximum diameter at the hair bulge of 50
micron. The detailed dimensions of the hair and socket that are
used to create the model, as shown in Figure 2 or 3, are
available in Ref. [7], and hereby not shown in this paper. The
hair is modeled with solid element, where socket is modeled
using shell elements.
FINITE ELEMENT (FE) MODEL
This study conducts dynamic analysis to understand the
fundamental frequencies and mode shapes of a cricket hair and
hair-socket assembly. This research also captures the transient
response of the hair and socket under a pulse load. In this study,
simulations are performed using Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
software ANSYS. We used APDL (ANSYS Parametric Design
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Language) to create the 3D model and to apply necessary
boundary conditions and loadings. The FEA model is based on
Figure 2, as shown below. There are two contact regions
considered in this model. The hair base and socket are in
contact initially. On the other hand, a gap exists between the
hair bulge and socket skirt. Subsequently, they are not in
contact initially but come in contact due to excessive
deformation of hair bulge. The contact regions are also shown
in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Hair and socket assembly of a filiform cricket hair.
The entire hair length is not shown for clarity.
The half-symmetric FE model of the hair and socket is
shown in Figure 3. An axisymmetric model is not appropriate in
this case because the hair movement is highly directional or
moves in only one plane (from left to right) even though the
socket is almost rotationally symmetric. We used 8-node solid
element (SOLID185) to model the hair, with 3 DOF at each
node. The socket was model with 4-node shell element
(SHELL181), with 6 DOF at each node. These elements types
are shown in Figure 4. The initial contact between the hair and
socket was simulated using 3D 4-node Surface-to-Surface
contact elements. We used CONTA173 element to define the
contact surface at hair and TARGET170 element to define the
target surface at socket. These elements are located on the
surfaces of 3-D solid or shell elements without mid-side nodes.
The contact between the hair bulge and socket skirt was
simulated using 3-D Line-to-Surface contact elements. We used
CONTA177 element to define a contact line at socket skirt and
TARGET170 element to define a target surface at hair bulge.
The CONTAC177 element is located on the edge of 3-D shell
elements with or without mid-side nodes. We used different
key-option parameters to assign initial gap between the hair
bulge and socket skirt. We also controlled other contact
 parameters to ensure that the contact element did not penetrate and socket were assumed to be the same material with elastic
the target region but permitted sliding. modulus E = 6 GPa, Poisson’s ratio = 0.4 and density = 1.2
kg/m3. Numerical simulations were conducted considering
nonlinearity due to excessive deformation and contact analysis.

Figure 5: Boundary conditions and loading in hair socket

assembly of a filiform cricket hair. The entire hair length is not
Figure 3: FE model of hair and socket assembly of a filiform shown for clarity.
cricket hair. The entire hair length is not shown for clarity.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The first few natural frequencies of the hair-socket assembly
are presented in Table 1. The hair is constrained to move along
z-direction, as shown in Figure 5. This boundary condition
complies with real physical situation. Therefore, all the natural
frequencies are found to offer vibration in XY plane. In mode #
1, the hair has been found to swing left and right at 23 Hz in
horizontal XY plane, as shown in Figure 6. In mode # 2, the
socket is mainly swinging up and down at 478 Hz, as shown in
Figure 7. In mode # 3, both the hair and socket are found to
swing in opposite direction at 897 Hz, as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 4: Element types used to model the hair and socket. (a)
We are interested to see first few natural frequencies as
Solid element, (b) Shell element. Figure courtesy: ANSYS.
material damping is usually high at higher natural frequencies,
and excitation dies quickly.
The following boundary conditions were implemented in
FE model. The symmetric plan was constrained to move along
Table 1: Natural frequencies of the hair-socket assembly.
global z-direction (uz = 0), where it was allowed to move along
Mode # Frequency
global x- and y- directions. The outer periphery of the socket
skirt was fully fixed. The loading was applied using a contact 1 23 Hz
analysis. First, a contact surface (slave) was created using 2 478 Hz
nodes located at the entire symmetric plane (at z = 0). Then, a 3 897 Hz
master surface (pilot node) was created near the hair bulge.
Finally, the load was applied at the pilot node along the global
x-axis. The load was applied controlling the boundary
displacement as the actual force experienced by the filiform
hair was not known. The boundary conditions and loading are
shown in Figure 5.
The detailed methodology of getting mechanical properties
of hair and socket is explained in Ref. [6]. In brief, a range of
values for the elastic modulus, density and Poisson’s ratio were
obtained and then cross-referenced with the hair property of
spiders, and an approximate value was established. Both hair

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 This paper also shows some preliminary results of transient
dynamic analysis of the hair and socket assembly. Figure 9
shows the pulse load acting at hair along the global x-direction.
We arbitrarily used the pulse load magnitude of 0.09 N acted
on a hair line for 0.01 seconds. The damping factor was
considered to be 0.05. Figure 10 shows the transient response
of a node point located at the hair tip. The maximum
displacement of the hair tip was found to be 12.5 micron. The
hair behaved like a cantilever beam and its amplitude was
decreased with time as a sinusoidal wave as expected. Figure
11 shows the transient response of a node point located at the
socket skirt (Figure 2). The maximum displacement was found
to be 0.125 micron, which was also decreased with time as a
sinusoidal wave.
Figure 6: Mode # 1 of hair-socket assembly. The hair is mainly
swinging along XY plane.

Figure 9: FE model showing a pulse load (0.09 N) acting

along a hair line. The entire hair length is not shown for clarity.

Figure 7: Mode # 1 of hair-socket assembly. The socket is

mainly exciting along XY plane.

Figure 8: Mode # 3 of hair-socket assembly. Both hair and Figure 10: Transient response of a node point located at the hair
socket are swinging in opposite direction along XY plane. tip.

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 REFERENCES
1. M. Kanou, and T. Shimozawa, “Varieties of filiform hairs:
fractionation by sensory afferents and cercal interneurons
of a cricket,” J. comp. Physiol., vol. 155, pp. 485-
493(1984a)
2. J. P. Miller, S. Krueger, J. J. Heys, and T. Gedeon,
“Quantitative Characterization of the Filiform
Mechanosensory Hair Array on the Cricket Cercus,” 2011,
vol. 6, no. 11, p.e27873, November 2011.
3. D. A. Czaplewski, B. R. Ilic, M. Zalalutdinov, W. L.
Olbricht, A. T. Zehnder, and H. G. Craighead, “A
micromechanical flow sensor for microfluidic
applications,” Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems,
vol. 13, no. 4, p. 576, August 2004.
4. G. Krijnen, T. Lammerink, R. Wiegerink, and J. Casasin,
“Cricket Inspired Flow-Sensor Arrays,” Proc. of the 2007
Figure 11: Transient response of a node point located at the IEEE Sensors (2007).
socket skirt (Figure 2). 5. K. Joshi, A. Mian and J. Miller, “Model Development and
Analysis of a Cricket Filiform Hair Socket under Low
Velocity Air Currents,” Proceedings of IMECE, 2012.
CONCLUSION
We used finite element software ANSYS to conduct 6. A. Hossain and A. Mian, “Static Analysis of a Microscale
dynamic analysis of the microscale cricket filiform hair and Cricket Filiform Hair Socket,” Proceedings of IMECE,
hair socket. We used solid element to model the hair and shell 2014.
element to model the hair socket. The numerical simulation was 7. K. Joshi, “Biomechanical Analysis of a Cricket Filiform
conducted utilizing the appropriate boundary conditions based Hair Socket under Low Velocity Air Currents,” Master’s
on the physical conditions that an insect experiences. Several Thesis, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana,
contact analyses were incorporated to simulate the contact 2012.
between the hair and socket. This paper presents first three
natural frequencies of the hair and socket assembly. At 1st
mode, the hair is found to swing left and right at 23 Hz. At 2nd
mode, the socket is found to swing up and down at 478 Hz. And
at 3rd mode, both the hair and socket are found to swing left and
right in opposite direction at 897 Hz. We gave emphasis at
lower natural frequencies as material damping is usually high at
higher natural frequencies and, excitation dies quickly. The
natural frequencies and mode shapes obtained in this analysis
are important to control the dynamic attitude and to avoid the
resonance of the hair-socket assembly. We also study the
transient dynamic response of the hair and socket assembly.
The hair-socket assembly was found to behave like a cantilever
beam. The displacements of the hair and socket were found to
decrease with time as a sinusoidal wave, as expected. The
operating principles of the hair and hair-socket could be used
for the design of highly responsive MEMS devices such as
fluid flow sensors or micro-manipulators.

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